Storm ruined paper products burn at P & G during clean up

Paper products ruined during the January tornado burned in a huge fire behind the Procter & Gamble plant Tuesday afternoon.

Tons of Procter and Gamble paper products, that were ruined when their warehouse was damaged by the January 22nd tornado , caught fire when they were being cleaned up.

The fire started about 1:45 pm, when workers were moving the ruined toilet paper, paper towels, and diapers out of the warehouse into what firefighters describe as a pile that was 200 feet wide and 45 feet tall.

Battalion Chief Kelly Harcrow said "They were using a front end loader to push all that product together and apparently there was some kind of spark from the loader, or heat from the front of the loader, they are not sure. But something ignited the pile."

Firefighters say the wind spread the flames to nearby pallets and another pile of products. Firefighters battled the flames for nearly 5 hours, and had to use one hundred thousand gallons of water to extinguish the fire.